Features Region: Southeast

Nichole Hahn had more than 20 years of experience leading human resources, 16 of them supporting more than 3,000 employees in the government services division of engineering giant AECOM when she was recruited to join Valiant Integrated Services in January 2019.  Her experience made Hahn a good fit for Valiant, which provides services such as […]

In 1914, Philadelphia-based Day & Zimmermann designed the machine used to wrap the foil around Hershey’s iconic chocolate Kisses. Just three years earlier, the company had set records hauling the concrete to build the Panama Canal’s Gatun Locks. Then, in the 1930s, it was part of the effort to bring electricity to America’s rural areas.  […]

Lawson Horton has worked for Vital Records Control for 25 years, but he didn’t experience his biggest challenge until 2017.  That’s when VRC, which manages and stores paper and electronic files and data for businesses and provides IT consulting services, was acquired by a private equity group.   As senior vice president of human resources, Horton […]

By spring, Jennifer Foreman and her colleagues will be paging through the results of an employee-engagement survey that began in mid-January. It’s just the most recent project Foreman has either initiated or expanded at Charter Schools USA since the fall of 2021 when she became chief human resources officer of this education management organization that, […]

Kendra Harouff says it could be a birthday or engagement announcement appearing in Pye-Barker Fire & Safety’s monthly newsletter. It could also be a list of promotions and awards, or an article encouraging employees to support community activities, such as a local food bank. Whatever the topic, Harouff says her aim is to make Pye-Barker […]

Embrace change and don’t fear vulnerability. Those words may not fully summarize Troy Heflin’s career in human resources, but they have been at the forefront of his work at Volvo Financial Services over the past eight years. Heflin, the senior vice president of people and culture at VFS, is helping leadership and employees thrive as […]

Mansfield Energy is hardly an invisible company—not with its fleet of trucks hauling diesel, gasoline, and other products to customers throughout the U.S. It’s ranked the 48th largest private company in the U.S. for its volume of business by Forbes magazine, and Cole Carroll is making it her job to ensure people know Mansfield further. […]

Patience isn’t just a virtue in Jeffrey Rice’s world. It’s a necessity with big-ticket real estate development in the Washington-Baltimore metropolis. “Yes, you’ve got to have a lot of patience and understand the meaning of ‘no,’” Rice says. “We get told ‘no’ a lot. Solving for ‘no’ and turning it to ‘yes’ is basically what […]

From a young age—and throughout her career—Victoria Kuklina has focused on growth. She grew as a teenager after moving from Ukraine to Canada. She grew as a consultant following several years as a financial manager. And she continues to grow as the chief financial officer for Pinnacle Home Care. “We’ve done a lot of things […]

When Pamela McGee was hired to run the human resources department for a company that makes and sells desserts, she knew she’d have to learn about the manufacturing process and about the company culture. Turnover was a big concern, she says, and to get a better understanding of employee morale, she wanted to speak to […]